San Jose Sharks beat Vancouver Canucks 3-1 in playoff series opener

Niemi shines with 29 saves; Havlat hurt

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Sharks reached the Stanley Cup playoffs on the strength of their strong home-ice record, but Wednesday night the road was not a problem.

Not after third-period goals by Dan Boyle and Patrick Marleau gave San Jose a 3-1 come-from-behind victory over the Vancouver Canucks and a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven rematch of the 2011 Western Conference finals.

"All year the road hasn't been kind to us, so to come here and win Game 1 is huge," Sharks captain Joe Thornton said of a San Jose team that was 8-14-2 away from HP Pavilion this season. "Hopefully we can grab some confidence on the road from here on out."

The victory came despite the fact right wing Marty Havlat left the game midway through the first period with an undisclosed injury, forcing coach Todd McLellan to juggle his lines the rest of the way.

But Havlat's absence didn't slow down linemate Logan Couture, who scored San Jose's first goal on a power play in the second period and assisted on Marleau's as well. Sharks goalie Antti Niemi made 29 saves, letting only one puck past him after a pileup in front of the crease.

McLellan liked his team's effort -- dominating the first period, holding on when the Canucks pushed back in the second and then pulling away in the third.

"That's probably the way we have to win, the way we've been winning," he said. "A resilient group -- everybody's important, everybody gets to play."

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The biggest mystery in the 48 hours leading up to the series was whether the Canucks would start Roberto Luongo or Cory Schneider in goal. Ultimately, Canucks coach Alain Vignault indicated that Schneider was not fully healed from an undisclosed injury.

For the first 20 minutes, it took Luongo at his best to keep the Sharks off the scoresheet, as San Jose looked like the quick, high-energy team that went 12-3-1 down the stretch to secure a playoff spot the last week of the season.

By holding off the Sharks, Luongo enabled the Canucks to get on the scoreboard first, though it took a mad second-period scramble. With Niemi down and Couture in the net behind him, the puck somehow found its way over the goal line off Raffi Torres' stick, survived a review and was eventually credited to Kevin Bieksa at 12:26.

That lead didn't last long, thanks to Couture.

After Canucks right wing Zach Kassian was sent to the penalty box for roughing Couture at 16:00, the Sharks' leading goal-scorer made it personal 35 seconds later when he took a pass in the high slot from Boyle and fired it through traffic and past Luongo.

"It's always nice when the penalty is taken on you," Couture said of his power-play goal. "Obviously Kassian hit me high and the ref made a good call."

San Jose took the 2-1 lead at 9:17 of the third period after Tommy Wingels fought for position to get to the rebound of a Joe Pavelski shot and shoved the loose puck to a pinching Boyle.

Marleau picked up the insurance tally at 14:37, taking a behind-the-net pass from Couture and firing a shot that deflected past Luongo off Vancouver defenseman Dan Hamhuis' stick.

Havlat had 3:16 of ice time in five shifts before leaving for reasons the Sharks did not shed light on after the game. McLellan then used a range of players to fill his spot on Couture's line the rest of the game, including Wingels, Pavelski and Torres.

"The coaching staff did a great job putting lines together," Couture said. "Guys knew where they were going. It wasn't too tough."

The series continues here Friday night, with the Sharks assured of no worse than a split before heading home.

"We'll go to bed happy tonight," Boyle said, "but we've got some more work to do here in the next one."